When will Beaumont be on 'Cops,' and what will you see?

Dan Wallac, Beaumont Enterprise

By Dan Wallach

Published 8:50 am, Monday, August 5, 2013

As seen on TV.
From left, Matt Bean and Jason Schmoker are expected to be featured on the long-aired documentary series Cops after being filmed in a half-mile foot chase down Bennett Road.
Photo taken Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

As seen on TV.
From left, Matt Bean and Jason Schmoker are expected...

As one of several Beaumont officers recently followed by the television-series Cops' video cameras, Jason Schmoker is said to be featured on the show due to a half-mile foot chase in the city's north end.
Photo taken Friday, July 27, 2013
Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Beaumont police officers Jason Schmoker and Matt Bean had just enjoyed lunch at Elena's Mexican Restaurant with a camera crew from the "Cops" television show - the one that shows police officers in action. Putting away a plate of chicken and queso, the officers were showing the production team a nice local slice of their city.

"I hope we don't get in a foot chase," Bean recalled saying as they returned to their cruiser.

Cue up the unwriteable and unforgettable double-gong scene-changer from "Law and Order," another fictional TV show, and fade in with the "Cops" theme reggae lilt, "Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do..."

On that June afternoon, with the "Cops" team - a camera operator and sound technician - in the back seat, Schmoker and Bean took a look around a known drug-dealing area. They declined to say precisely where, like a lucky angler who doesn't want to tell you where his favorite fishing hole is.

Schmoker and Bean are assigned to the Beaumont Police Department's Special Assignment Unit, which means they go where their instincts take them. They aren't tied to the dispatcher, and they roam the city looking at known trouble spots.

The officers saw something that caught their attention.

They also noticed that the car they were looking at lacked a front license plate, which is a state violation. There were warrants for the owner of that car.

They hit their lights.

The driver of the Mazda 626 took off down Helbig Road. The officers were in pursuit.

The Mazda driver turned right onto Bennett Road, barrelling down the almost-country two-lane. Then a curious thing happened.

The driver bailed out of the moving car and took off running as the Mazda slowly rolled toward a roadside ditch and eventually came to rest against the side of a house along Bennett.

Schmoker and Bean pulled their cruiser to a halt and jumped out in pursuit of the suspect, who faked a left onto Barrett Road but continued down Bennett.

The suspect found a bit of a clearing in the thick woods alongside Bennett Road and plunged into deepening green. Schmoker dashed in as Bean followed with the "Cops" team close behind, keeping pace, camera trained on the action in front of them.

This is why "Cops" is a documentary show, not a so-called "reality" show, said producer Zach Ragsdale.

Nothing is scripted. There is no planned outcome, he said.

In a previous episode of "Cops," in which Ragsdale himself was the camera operator, Pittsburgh officers spotted a person on a city street with a suspicious bulge near the waistband of his trousers. As officers got out of their car and asked the person to stop, he started to run, keeping his right hand by his side as he pumped furiously with his left, trying to outdistance the police in pursuit and evade arrest.

An officer caught up, bumped him into a fence like a defender on a football team forcing a ball carrier out of bounds. The officer got the suspect on the ground and wrestled away a high-powered weapon called a TEC-9, a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. The suspect also had a TEC-9 tattoo on his abdomen, Ragsdale said.

The arresting officer explained his actions on-camera, out of breath from the exertion.

Schmoker understands exactly how that feels.

"We were at top-speed for at least a minute," Schmoker said. "He (the suspect) was in his 20s, tall and thin, athletic."

Schmoker, 29, stands 6 feet, 4 inches and is in good shape.

"It's never an easy run," he said, because officers are dressed in uniform and are carrying tactical gear around their waists.

"I've been in foot chases before, but this was the longest by far," he said. "When he got to the woods, he was walking. I said, 'I got you now.'"

Schmoker said the suspect decided to just lie down.

When the suspect hit the woods, the officers could see him drop something. They recovered what they said was more than four ounces of marijuana rolled up in four fresh plastic bags.

Officers arrested him on a charge of evading arrest and felony possession of a controlled substance.

The suspect recently had surgery and the chase loosened some stitches, so the officers took him to a local hospital for treatment. There, the "Cops" production team was able to secure the necessary release from the suspect to be able show the segment.

Another time during the producers' eight-week stay in Beaumont, a suspect in a narcotics case refused to sign the release.

Ragsdale praised the Beaumont department as being easy to work with.

"It was awesome, a warm reception from the chief and everyone on down," he said. "The chief was very accessible and that made the whole process easier for us. As with most departments, they're a little leery at first, but Beaumont was really receptive from the start."

Beaumont Police Chief James Singletary said another law enforcement agency had recommended Beaumont as a possible location for "Cops." He was open to it when Ragsdale called.

Singletary cleared it with the city administration and learned that departments are able to view the segments well ahead of the time the finished product runs on television.

"Most people have no idea what officers deal with on a daily basis," he said. "Officers keep us safe every day. Most people's contact with police is negative. You get a speeding ticket (for example). Our show allows you to see all the other things officers do and the danger in law enforcement and keeping a community safe."

This coming season will be the 26th year for "Cops," Ragsdale said. It was the first of the reality-based shows, he said despite the genre transforming into something less than real.

Schmoker and Bean said they've seen the segment in which they are involved and agree it's an accurate representation of the incident. It is scheduled to air on the show's season premiere, Oct. 26, on Spike.

"I like the show," Schmoker said. "It shows how it really is out there. It shows we're out there working and that we're doing something to alleviate the problem."